[f. SPARK sb.1 or v.1]
1. † a. Of velvet: Spotted with gold or some similar material. Obs.–1
Cf. SPARKED ppl. a. 2, and ‘sparke of veluet Sackets’ in Dekker Work for Armourers (1608), G ij.
1620. in Blunt, Ch. Chester-le-Street (1884), 85. Paid for twelve yeards of sparkie velvett for the pulpitt cloth, at 4s. ye yearde, 48s.
b. dial. Of cattle: Mottled; = SPARKED ppl. a. 1.
1787. Grose, Prov. Gloss., Sparkey, or Sparkled, spotted, sprinkled. A sparkey cow.
1837–. in dial. glossaries (Devon, Somerset, Wilts).
1869. Daily News, 8 Dec., 5/3. The second pure Devon in the young class … showed in fine contrast with the very ‘sparky’ one in the older class.
2. Emitting sparks; also, lively, vivacious.
1827. Carlyle, Germ. Rom., II. 298. The Archivarius caught these lilies blazing in sparky fire and dashed them on the witch.
1883. in W. W. Peyton, Life H. Miller, ii. 21. Few like him for sport, a stirring, sparkie callant.
